Reggie ("Da Crusher") Lisowski, shown in this 1986 photo, has died of a brain tumor on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005. He was 79. An icon in professional wrestling circles, he was considered a man of the people because of his blue-collar Milwaukee roots.(AP Photo/The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal) 1986 PHOTO

Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski, a professional wrestler whose blue-collar bona fides made him beloved among working class fans for 40 years, died of a brain tumor Oct. 22 at the Bradford Terrace Convalescent Center in Milwaukee. He was 79.

A 6-foot, 260-pound specimen with a cement-mixer voice, Mr. Lisowski performed in the days before vitamin supplements and anabolic steroids were widely used. Nicknamed "The Wrestler Who Made Milwaukee Famous," the barrel-chested bulldozer bragged that he worked out by running along the Lake Michigan waterfront with a keg of beer on each shoulder, building his stamina to polka all night with the local "Polish dollies." He was often photographed relaxing before a match by drinking a beer and smoking a cigar.

He was marketed as a villain, but the public loved him. He once drew 8,000 fans in the 1970s and often sold out arenas a week in advance. Earlier this year, Mr. Lisowski was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame with his most famous tag-team partner, the late Dick "The Bruiser" Afflis. The pair collected five American Wrestling Association world tag titles; Mr. Lisowski, paired with other wrestlers, won three more. He also won the AWA's world heavyweight title three times.

"I think working people identify with me because years ago, I worked when I wrestled, too," Lisowski told the Milwaukee papers in 1985. "I worked at Ladish, Drop Forge, Cudahy Packing House. I was a bricklayer. But finally, I got away from punching the clock."

He punched plenty of other things with his signature finishing move, the bolo, which had a windup like a fast pitch softball pitch but ended with a whomp to a competitor's bone and muscle. His own body was not spared the violence of the ring. Mr. Lisowski broke his right elbow seven or eight times, his son David Lisowski said, and was unable to fully straighten it. He had "thousands" of stitches in his head, countless concussions and a damaged eardrum. When he broke his right shoulder, he came home from a match, went to a pillar in the basement and yanked it back into place. He also had two hip replacements, a knee replacement and multiple heart bypass surgeries.

Yet he was so strong, he could bend a tire in half, which is harder than it sounds.